Undertow

by Elle Chardou

Book Description

Secrets...

Evie Sandstrom has always had secrets. She has grown up with them and now they are coming
back and chipping away at her confident facade. Always one for an adventure, she decides to
leave after college break and spend the summer in Boston.

The Irish Gangster...

Finn Reilly is not only a bad-boy drug dealer but he is also Evie's first love. When they meet
again in Boston, sparks begin to fly and although they share one huge secret that should have
destroyed them forever, it unites them at a time when she needs all the help she can get.

The French Model...

Evie's mother, superstar actress Athena Donahue, has remarried to Etienne Fournier, a model
who is eighteen years her mother's junior and wants to get to know Evie in more ways than one.
Once Athena drags her daughter back to L.A. under dubious circumstances, she is within the
sights of Etienne yet out of the sights of Finn. Can they resolve their differences and will true
love prevail or will life get in the way and spoil their chances of happiness?

Excerpt

Did I still love Finbar Reilly?

It wasn’t so much a question of whether I loved him because he was my first love but whether we were willing to try for a second time to make our relationship work now that we were adults. If he continued his criminal enterprise activities then obviously the chances of us having a functional relationship were slim to none. My mother would rather have me murdered herself than to have her only child wrapped up with an Irish thug.

“Wow. He really thinks a nineteen-year-old needs a fifty thousand dollar mobile phone?” he inquired in a sarcastic voice.

“Whoa, check out the big brain on Finn. How the hell do you know how much this phone costs anyway?"

“I read you know. Contrary to what you might think, I am completely literate and can use a computer just fine. I have an iBook over there in the corner, a Kindle Fire, an iPod Touch and the latest iPhone. I also have an iPad but I mostly use it to watch films when I want to be alone.”

I shrugged apathetic shoulders. “What can I say? He’s old world and Swedish...not to mention a former action hero superstar. He doesn’t get that people in the real world don’t carry around outrageously expensive shit like rich people do.”

“Oh yeah, where is he living now and when’s the last time you saw him? I read about his marriage to Artemis Ozan. That must have sent your mother around the bend. He dumps her and marries a British pop singer who used to be part of the mega-girl group, The Baby Gyrls.”

“No one even knows who the hell she is here so that helped.” I began to play with my phone just to keep my hands busy and away from his body. “It didn’t help that Artemis is a huge star in the UK. Mom used to hate to attend premieres there because they would always ask her questions about the woman and wonder whether she had anything to do with my parents’ divorce.”

Finn stared me over with bright crystal blue eyes. “Did she?”

“Well...yeah. He met her at the premiere of that film he did about the rogue CIA agent. He and Mom were having problems because of what had happened here between us but...she doesn’t blame me. She thinks she made the right decision but Dad was furious with her. He thought you and I could really make a go of it and wanted to buy us a place in Europe. I would have been sixteen soon and that’s the age of consent in Sweden. We could have gotten married.”

I was silent for a moment. “He never thought we should have just been separated the way
we were and furthermore, he didn’t want me to grow up in the spotlight. His bright idea was
moving us away and allowing me to grow up like a normal teenager in Sweden. Of course that
would have meant you would have wanted to move there but he was willing to finance the whole
set-up.”

Finn took the phone from my hands and set it down on the table next to the bed before he slipped his arms around my waist. “You know I would have gone anywhere with you. Why
didn’t your dad have more of a say?”

“Because Mom just took over the whole situation and that is when he gave up and went to Europe to do that film. By the time he got back, everything was already put into motion and there was nothing he could do. He kind of just allowed the marriage to fall apart and the next thing I knew, Mom told me he was moving to London to star in a Broadway show and they were getting divorced.

We drifted down onto the bed and when he kissed me again my heart began to thump in my chest with an intensity I didn’t think was possible. Everything about the situation was perfect including the way his JD soaked tongue swirled with mine and we both kind of drifted into each other’s space.

My hands had a mind of their own as they removed his wife-beater to reveal a new tattoo, one of a shamrock on the left side of his chest with the colors of the Irish flag. This joined a black Celtic cross he had on his right shoulder blade, a black broken heart on his right upper arm and my name in cursive on his left upper shoulder just above a hard-core barbed wire tattoo.

I traced the shamrock tattoo on his chest. “This your last time dabbling with ink?” I questioned in a teasing manner.

“I don’t know. You still have your tramp stamp?” he inquired.

“Um, yeah. It makes interesting conversation when ever I have ever been in bed with a guy...which has only been a couple of times since you...guys I mean.”

The tramp stamp he referred to was a tattoo I had at the base of my back which read
“Property of Finn R.” It was during the days when we were inseparable and although I was
underage, it didn’t stop me from getting it done. I was so happy to be with him I would have had
it tattooed on my face if he’d wanted me to at the time.

“Speaking of being with other guys...I don’t want to hear about it, okay? And does that
mean you’re on anything?” Finn inquired with cold look flashing through his gorgeous eyes.

“No, I’m not on anything because the guys I have been with...we always used rubbers and
lately, I’ve been kind of dabbling on the other side of the fence.”

About the Author

Elle Chardou

Elle Chardou is a world traveler and author of several different series.

Ms. Chardou is the author of The Ties That Bind Trilogy, The Atonement Series, The Hart Family
Saga, The Vamp Saga, The Supernaturals, Beginnings: Book I (The Plague) series.
She is currently working on Only Love (The Atonement Series), Queen of the Immortals, Book
Three in The Vamp Saga.

Ms. Chardou has lived abroad in Stockholm (Sweden), Manchester (England), Los Angeles, the
San Francisco Bay Area and Portland. She currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.